Hear us Roar

This week we welcome Meg Hamand to the podcast (Diamonds in Auschwitz, Greenleaf Publishing, March 2025). We discuss the books that kept her sane while writing about a horrific period in history while living through another (COVID), how she writes her first draft straight through without looking back, and how going with a hybrid publisher was a mini-course in learning about the publishing industry. We then talk about setting realistic goals for your career and how you don't necessarily have to say yes to the first person that says yes to you, be they an agent, a publicist, or a publisher.
 
Diamonds in Auschwitz was cited as "a significant contribution to Holocaust literature" by Readers' Favorite and was an Amazon Bestseller and a #1 New Release. It was awarded second place in Women's Historical Fiction by The BookFest, first place in Historical Fiction by Firebird Book Awards, and the Prodigy (Best Debut Novel) Award from StoryTrade Awards.
 
Meg has had a heart for storytelling since her first publication in elementary school. She graduated summa cum laude from Indiana State University with a degree in English and creative writing and has an MBA from Indiana Wesleyan. She lives in Plymouth, Indiana with her husband/high school sweetheart and their 15-year-old daughter (also an aspiring artist).
To learn more about Meg, click here.

Our podcast guest this week is Jill Amber Chafin (Shaken, Vine Leaves Press, March 2025). Hear how the inspiration for Jill's debut occurred in a doctor's office, how writing a book about a controversial (and dark) subject matter hurt her when looking for an agent, and how she eventually found her publisher through a Twitter post that went viral. And we spend time talking about how Jill found her critique group, how she used them throughout her writing process, and how important it is to get other's eyes on your work before querying.
 
Jill Amber Chafin's work has appeared in The Personal Story Publishing Project and Motherfigure, and has been honored as a Finalist for the Penelope Niven Creative Nonfiction Award, Honorable Mention in the New Millennium Writing Awards, and Third Place winner in the anthology America's Next Author. Her debut novel, Shaken, was selected as a finalist for the 2024 Wishing Shelf Book Awards and awarded the 2025 Literary Titan Silver Book Award. She lives with her husband and two children in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where she works as a writer, editor, and circus arts teacher. Follow her on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok @jillamberchafin.
To learn more about Jill, click here.

This week our podcast guest is Tatiana Goded (A Trip Towards the Sunset, indie published, March 2025). Tatiana's debut follows 3 women facing mid-life challenges and dovetails with her own journey moving from Spain to New Zealand and from a scientific field to being a life coach while also embracing her dream to write. We discuss what's it like to rediscover your passion, how social media can be used to help stave off the loneliness of the solitary writer, and how she had to learn the self-discipline to write without the safety net of classes or critique groups.
 
Born in Madrid, Spain, and trained as a scientist, Tatiana's passion for writing goes back as long as she can remember. After moving to New Zealand in her mid-thirties, she rediscovered storytelling and took creative writing courses at the New Zealand Writers College.
She won second prize in the 2014 "1st Letras Latinas Short Story Competition" (Alac Inc, Auckland) for "A Trip to Vienna," and in 2018 Letras Latinas Publishing House published her mini stories "Farewell" and "If I Went There for a Second Time" in English and Spanish.Alongside science, Tatiana works helping women in midlife reconnect with their passions. She loves reading, spending time with her daughter, dancing, tramping and travelling. After 14 years in New Zealand, Tatiana has now moved to Ireland with her daughter and their Golden Retriever.
Follow her writing at tatianagoded.com.

Our podcast guest this week is Raquel Y. Levitt (The Seer, Acorn Publishing, March 2025). We discuss the originals of her debut which started as a single clear image she  saw of a woman in a marketplace in the 1800's and why she decided going for her MFA was the next right move for her. Then we move into the tricky challenge of marketing a mixed genre (historical fiction with paranormal elements) from cover design to finding the right audience and the effective use of contests to establish legitimacy in a crowded publishing environment.
 
Raquel Y. Levitt received her master's degree in English and has taught Literature and Composition at the university level. After a few years she decided to pursue what she really loved—writing, so she shelved her gradebook and pursued an MFA in Creative Writing. Her debut novel, The Seer, has received multiple accolades and awards, including Literary Global Book Awards 2025 Fiction Book of the Year. Her short stories have been published in literary journals and anthologies, including the multi-award-winning Feisty Deeds: Historical Fictions of Daring Women. Besides being a writer, Raquel is an avid reader, book hoarder, world traveler, amateur nature photographer, birder, and collector of cool rocks.
To find about more about Raquel, go to https://raquellevitt.com

This week our podcast guest is Angelika Morini (Do You See Me Now?, indie published, February 2025). Angelika, who lives and writes from Germany, discusses the challenges of querying publishing professionals from overseas. We delve into how a short story kept growing until she realized she was writing a book, how her plot (two sisters at a retreat to study The Hero's Journey) provided a structure for her book as well, and how it wasn't until she'd published her debut that she realized book marketing was another (almost) full-time job.
 
Angelika Morini was born in Eastern Germany in the 1980s and chose to alchemize her own lived experience as the historical background of her debut novel Do You See Me Now?. She writes in English, the language of her emotions, thoughts, and dreams, ever since she studied in the United States, in Minnesota and Washington State. Since then, most of her life has happened in English, including her professional and family life. By profession Morini is a senior HR leader, ICF certified Coach and certified Conscious Parenting Coach through Dr. Shefali Tsabary's institute, which informs the psychological texture of her fiction. She lives in Germany with her husband, son and well-traveled cat, enjoying regular visits of her two adult bonus-children. She frequently spends time at the Lago Maggiore in Italy, her energetic home and setting of the second novel she's currently writing.
 
To learn more about Angelika and her novel, click here.